Bought my first Hobie Cat, it was quite cheap knowing there are some issues, not a huge deal. This is my first Hobie, and my first boat, although I used to sail with a friend a few years ago so I'm refreshing myself.

That being said, here's the first issue I'm running into while running new lines. The manual, and every manual I can find is basically the same in this area, says in the mast prep section that the the halyard blocks should be connected in a specific way, but this Hobie has them connected in an entirely different way and it's a bit confusing. Here's what the manual says they should look like.

Yet here's what mine looks like.

The red circle at the top of the small block runs through the big block and ends with the connector in the green circle at the other end, with 16' of wire between them. The yellow is my forestay.

The sketch you attached shows the newer "Aussie" style halyard system. Unfortunately, it looks like Hobie removed the link on their web site to the original assembly manual which showed the original jib halyard system (what you have).

You need about 20 feet of 3/16" jib halyard line. Tie the line to the becket on the bottom of the jib halyard block (block circled in red in your picture). To hoist the jib, attach the shackle (green circle in your picture) to the head of the jib. Pull the jib halyard line to raise the jib. Once the jib is almost fully hoisted, the jib halyard block (block you tied the halyard line to) will be down about 3 feet off the base of the mast. If you look at the mast base, there is a turning "cheek" block and a horn cleat on the side. Route the jib halyard around the cheek block, back up through the jib halyard block, and back down to the horn cleat. This will give you a 3:1 purchase for tensioning the jib halyard. Pull the halyard until the shrouds get tight and the forestay wire goes slack (the jib halyard wire becomes the forestay once the jib is raised).

Back again with another question already, two actually:I got the jib block taken care of (huge thanks again) but ran into two issues when stepping the mast. First off, it's extremely heavy. As in, I'm not the strongest person around, weigh around 180 lbs and work on a computer all day, but this thing was a beast to put up. It doesn't sound like there's any water in the mast (some other Google searches suggested this), but I guess I didn't listen specifically, should this be easy to hear and/or is there something else I should look for?Also, my forestay is about 1' short of reaching the forestay adjuster. My shrouds are all out as far as they can go, so this confused me quite a bit. Any ideas?

You should be able to hear water in the mast if press your ear against the mast while tilting the ends up and down. I have done this before by holding the mast in the middle (balance point), putting it up on my shoulder, putting my ear against the mast and sea-sawing the ends. The only exception would be if water was trapped between the head cap and the upper plug, it would not move even when the mast is tilted.

Regarding the forestay length, I would check all wires against the lengths shown in the wire guide. Also keep in mind that the forestays have gotten longer and the shrouds gotten shorter over the years to accommodate more mast rake. If someone put new shrouds on a boat with an old forestay, the wires may not reach.